Spring - GBC Meetings 2005
ISKCON Germany started the New Year on a very bleak note. At a hurriedly
convened meeting attended by all the national council members, along
with the lacklustre GBC for Germany Ravindra Svarupa Das, a declaration
of a state of emergency was made in order to:
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- But why should there be any need to sell Germany's three remaining temples?
| "The amount due to this day is one million EU." |
- And how did the German devotees get in such a financial mess?
| "…due to faithfully following past authorities…" |
If any company ran up such huge debts, the first thing to be done would be to fire those in charge. The following makes it clear why Ravindra Svarupa was more than happy to support Dina Sharana Devi Dasi's proposal:
| "The issues in M. Dina Sharana DD proposal are not about Who is right, Who is guilty, Who took advantage of the money, Who messed it all up!? Who is responsible for it!? Who will pay for it!?" |
So that gets around the issue of poor leadership from Ravindra Svarupa and the corrupt and unauthorised Gurus he has foisted on Germany over the years. The proposal, which aims to raise the money over two years, cleverly makes great appeals to everyone's loyalty and affection for Srila Prabhupada:
| "Please consider: there is no ISKCON
outside of ISKCON and as faithful followers of Srila
Prabhupada´s mission, there is no question of being part of the
problem but part of the solution!(…) They will have a common cause to work for, to save Srila Prabhupad´s movement in Germany, from being destroyed. (…) Only an ISKCON wide Solidarity Action is able to help us out of this mess, and only then will we be able carry on "Srila Prabhupadas Legacy", and will have the right to call ourselves by its name." |
Isn't it amazing how ISKCON only fully returns
to belonging to Srila Prabhupada when money is needed? When the bogus
Gurus create a huge mess they are more than willing to say ISKCON is
Srila Prabhupada's movement, his legacy etc. But as soon as the money is
sorted it then becomes the mission of eighty competing Gurus.
We note that the proposal says nothing about working together to save
the German temples for the ISKCON Gurus who need them as recruiting
camps for new worshippers, yet this is exactly what they were used for
since 1978.
Since that date not one single, solitary disciple was made for Srila Prabhupada. If the German temples were saved, and a new devotee joined thinking it really was Srila Prabhupada's mission, and as a result wanted to accept him as his Guru in accordance with Srila Prabhupada's signed institutional directives, he would be ruthlessly hounded from the movement. That is the reality.
- So in what sense is it Srila Prabhupada's
mission?
So desperate is the author of the proposal to use Srila Prabhupada as support that she actually implies he would want her plan to be implemented:
| "If Srila Prabhupada would physically be present before us at this very moment, we would not hesitate for a second and we would say: "Yes! I will do the needful!" |
We notice she does not use Ravindra Svarupa in
her example, even though he was "physically present" right before them
at the meeting. Clearly she did not feel he had the same potency to get
the required response. Yet Ravindra claims to be the current
representative of the same disciplic succession of mahabhagavatas (those on the topmost platform of spiritual advancement) that gave us
Srila Prabhupada.
So we can see the same bait-and-switch scam mentioned in this issue's
editorial at work in every crevice and corner of ISKCON today: "Please
save this temple for Srila Prabhupada", and then when the temple is
saved, "Srila Prabhupada is now dead, you cannot have him, you must have
one of his successors instead." (Please read the following if you feel
this is an exaggeration.)
| HH Jayapataka Swami,
self-authorised ISKCON Guru: "Srila Prabhupada has been dead for the last 23 years" (Front page, Asian Age newspaper, 24th July 2000) |
His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON Founder-Acarya: Reporter: Who will succeed you when you die? Srila Prabhupada: I will never die Devotees: Jaya! Haribol! Srila Prabhupada: I shall live from my books and you will utilise. (Press Conference, 16th July 1975, San Francisco) |
| HH Bhakti Caru
Swami, ISKCON GBC voted-in Guru: "But if instead we feel that, "Now Srila Prabhupada is dead and gone; now I am the guru. So what Srila Prabhupada was to his disciples, to my disciples I am just that." That mentality would have been fine if we were not a part of a world-wide institution like ISKCON." (Day 3, LA Seminar, 'Questions and Answers', Published on June 11, 2000) |
"So my
Guru Maharaja will be very, very much pleased with you ... it is
not that he is dead and gone. That is not spiritual
understanding ... he is seeing. I never feel that I am alone." (Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 2nd March 1975) |
| Ravindra Svarupa Das, ISKCON GBC voted-in Guru : "I simply wish that these people (ritvik advocates) would settle this issue by writing Prabhupada a letter and letting us know what he says when he answers back." (Video, San Diego debate, 1990) |
Devotee: Srila Prabhupada
when you're not present with us, how is it possible to receive
instructions? For example in questions that may arise… Srila Prabhupada: Well the questions are answ...answers are there in my books. (Morning Walk, Los Angeles, 13/5/73) |
Readers of BTP may recall that in issue 2 we
exposed the former GBC and Guru for Germany Harikesa Das as having left
the movement with hundreds of thousands of dollars. He bought a luxury
home on the French Riviera and settled down with his therapist. Another
former leader and initiating Guru for Germany is the now disgraced
Prithu Das, who was shown in our last issue to have perfectly
demonstrated the abusive nature of a bogus Guru.
When these Gurus got "carried away" there were not only the obvious
financial irregularities of missing money, but also the fact that their
disciples became totally confused and disheartened. For example, when
Prithu admitted he was not following the basic principles of human life
(not to speak of a liberated acharya) the temple in Vienna had to
close since all his disciples lost faith in ISKCON.
Every time an ISKCON Guru goes down he leaves behind him a trail of
destruction in the form of disillusioned followers whose faith is very
often shattered beyond repair. Gaudiya Matha Gurus such as Narayana
Maharaja then exploit the situation by posing themselves as spiritual
masters who will never fall down. In this way, they hover round ISKCON
picking off its disillusioned refugees for their own rival missions. All
these problems are due to the unauthorised Guru system currently
operating in ISKCON. As Srila Prabhupada states:
"In the Caitanya-caritamrta (Antya 7.11) it is clearly said, krishna-shakti vina nahe tara pravartana: without being authorized by Krishna, one cannot preach the holy name of the Lord throughout the entire world."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.14.39, purport)
That authorised person is already here - Srila
Prabhupada - and one need not follow any other rival Gurus.
Srila Prabhupada - Accept No Substitutes